Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-05-19
BY ELIZA ARcHARD
IcOpyriahted by the American Press AssOciatiOn.l
CHAPTER XIII.

peneu 10 n0ufe1.
She had given over looking Tor anything
new in her existence. Once she had dreamed
that change might come, but that was long
since She had ceased to think about it. She
set her face forward, and drifted on with the
tide Of years. So far as existing for herself
went her life was steady repression.
The children were nearly oil Off her hands
now.
itThey're credit to you. Shirley said our
old friend, Mis- Simpkins They've all done
splendid
Tom, the laundering brother. came home
for the family reunion at Christmas 1t was
the first time he had set foot in the stone
house since he left it at the age of %, being
at that time under bit of cloud. But Tom
had redeemed himself nobly. He had gone
to work with will, and the good that was
in him came uppermost.
Tom affected wild western ways tremen-
dously. He wore big heard and slouched
hat. He said the east crowded him up, and
he longed to get back to the plains and the
mountains, where he had room to breathe
and turn around He was fond of leaning
up against something, resting upon one leg,
with his hat on and his hands in his pockets,
geously about the west. Tom had got a
nasty habit of chewing tobacco after he went
away. And he talked of "my partner" and
was fond of emphasizing his language with
words not found in the dictionary. He
could not speak his mind in ordinary English.
It was not emphatic enough for him.
He wouldn't live in the east if they'd give
him whole state, quotha. People here were
too picayunish for him. He told tales of buff
falo and Indian that made the Linwood chill
dren's hair stand on end.
Life had thriven handsomely with Tom. He
came back to them big western man, with
Q certain dignity of his own that became him
well. He came, too, with the title that his
father had given him i'll sport in boyhood
tackled to his name in earnest Tom was
sure enough governor now, governor of the
young territory wherein he had cast his for
tunes twelve years before. Oh, yes, Tom
was brother to be proud of.
The brother and sister wandered about the
old home together, talking of the changes in
the village and of the family fortunes.
"You look a little pale, Shirley. Come to
think, what nose and grindstone business
your life has BEEN" .., ..
II haven't had fun enough to spoil me,
that's fact"
"Its shame, Shirley, how you have
worked for us all. never thought of it be-
fore"
EYES," said Shirley. II never saved myself
any,"
"But it must be q satisfaction to you to
think bow well all of us boys turned out"
continued Tom, with little pardonable pride
"There's every one of us now credit to his
family and his country. We're all little
past common, if do say it myself. And I'm
absolutely certain that some of us will be dis
tinguished men before we die"
eyes! hope So"
"And," continued Tom, with n smack of
self compacency, "it must be a pride and
comfort to woman to know that she has
sacrificed her life to bring up good men, who
take prominent places i'll the world"
But there was no complacency, on the con-
trary there was bitterness, in Shirley's voice
as she answered:
eyes, that's like a man. A woman is always
to be the ladder for great men to climb up by.
How would you like such life of self sacri-
flee for yourself, Tom"
"I-oh, well--that's different"
as it?" said Shirley. '"
They gathered in, one by one, the Carstone
children, now the Carstone men and women.
Alice had prepared surprise for the Christ
mas. This youngest child of Shirley's care
had shown the not uncommon artistic taste Of
the girl of the period. AS she grew older
this taste deepened into genuine talent, ac-
companed by that which is uncommon in the
girl of the period-a sincere resolve to make
something of it,
Alice did not copy plaques" from chromos.
She was abroad for three years studying
earnestly, in Rome in Paris, Munich and
Dresden. She had come home for good now,
and was to have her studio in F. She was
the last of the children to be educated and
provided for.
Now Shirley was to be free at last. The
young birds had flown and gone their ways.
There were none left in the nest but Shirley
and her mother.
The first use Alice made of her ripened tai
ent and perfected skill was to paint a portrait
of Shirley. The hand Of the loving sister re-
produced better than any other could have
done the noble, beautiful face. This was the
surprise Alico was preparing for them all.
The picture was to be done and unveiled be-
fore them all on Christmas day. Alice her.
self had devised a marvellous draping for the
figure, half fanciful, and wholly pagan, that
gave vivid effect to the head and face. 1t
was striking picture Alice worked on it
with enthusiasm. Ones own family are his
severest critics. With pardonable pride,
Alice wished the Carstones TO see that she
had not been wasting her time.
Yet with all her labors, all her enthusi-
asnl, she could not make the portrait satisfy
her, She painted partly from phetograph,
partly from Shirley herself who sat for the
picture now and then.
All she could do, there remained in the eyes
OF the picture an unfathomable depth Of mel
ancholy. 1t was so marked as to be start
ling. 1t was the first expression observed and
criticised by the few friends who saw the
pictured face.
at looks too sorrowful for Shirley" they
said, one and alL
Alice tried to paint it out-changed it over
and over again--brt in vain
The trouble seemed to be with Shirley's
face in repose. Few persons had ever seen
her when she was not occupied at something.
But the moment she was quiet the strange.
sad look came into her face. 1t haunted all
her photographs There was weirdness in
It like the shadow of n fate, or like the sur
vival of a remorse for awful deeds done by
bloody handed ancestors centuries agone. At
any rate it was there, and would not be paint
ed out. H'3.'t
"You've got the woebegonest look in this
picture" said Alice. at isn't bit like you; /;
but somehow it's in the photograph, too. Do